There is proposed an inverted pendulum type vehicle, in which a base body assembled with a travel motion unit which travels on a floor surface and an actuator which drives the travel motion unit, is also assembled with a mounting unit of an object of transportation which is capable of freely tilting with respect to the perpendicular direction. For example, there is proposed a vehicle which is capable of functioning as the inverted pendulum type vehicle by the present applicant (refer to Published PCT International Applications WO/2008/132778 and Published PCT International Applications WO/2008/132779). In the vehicle, it is necessary to move the travel motion unit in a manner to move a fulcrum of the inverted pendulum, so as to maintain a tilt angle of the payload supporting part to a desired tilt angle (so as to prevent the payload supporting part from fall due to tilting).
Therefore, a control technology of the inverted pendulum type vehicle is proposed by the present applicant (refer to Japanese Patent No. 3070015).
To be more specific, the inverted pendulum type vehicle in which a base body of a vehicle assembled with a payload supporting part of a pedestrian as the mounting unit of the object of transportation, is provided so as to be freely tiltable about two axes, about an axis in a fore-and-aft direction and about an axis in a lateral direction, with respect to the ball-shaped travel motion unit, is the object of control. Further, a driving torque of a motor is sequentially determined so as to make a difference between a measured value of a tilt angle of the base body (=tilt angle of the payload supporting part) and a desired tilt angle closer to 0, and also to make the difference between a measured value of a velocity of the motor as an actuator (and consequently a moving velocity of the traveling motion unit) and a desired velocity closer to 0. Thereafter, the travel motion of the traveling motion unit is controlled via the motor, in accordance with the determined drive torque.